He had shouted this, which was the cue for his audience to go crazy again, but only for an allotted amount of time and then they quieted—eight hundred people went from cheering to quiet in one second. Sarah could not believe this level of mind control.
“Do you believe, Janice?” he asked.
“I do,” she said, as loudly as she could without actually screaming.
“What do you believe?”
Sarah was shaken by the question. She had fully expected a repeat-after-me sort of oath and then a quick dunk in the pool. Giving an impromptu statement was another thing altogether.
“I, uh, I believe that…I mean I believe in the uh…”
She began to tremble even more. How could they expect a recitation of beliefs from someone so new? All she knew for sure about New Eden was that it was filled with a bunch of mind-numbed robots who believed this guy was some sort of prophet. Wait…that was something, at least.
“I believe you are the prophet of the Lord,” Sarah said. What else did she know about him? “And I believe that you built New Eden with his, uh, guidance and love. And I believe you can cast out demons. And…and I believe that only you can keep us safe.”
Abraham beamed at this and cried out: “She believes!”
Sarah felt the first wave of mind-conditioning kick in as she smiled back at Abraham, relieved that she had pleased him and happy that she wasn’t going to be punished.
“Come to the pool and kneel before it,” he commanded.
She did so quickly.
The position she found herself in, kneeling with her head extended outward, made her feel like she was placing her neck into the yoke of a guillotine. Abraham knelt beside her and rested his hand on her back.
“With this water, the gift of the Lord, I can wash away the sins of your old life. No matter the sin, be it murder, adultery, idolatry…these were sins committed in ignorance. These were sins of the blind. Do you wish me to wash them away?”
“I do,” Sarah said.
His hand gripped tighter on her neck as he asked, “Do you wish me to wash away the filth from your eyes so you have full understanding of the Lord and his Prophet here on earth?”
“I do.”
“Do you understand that any sin committed from this moment forward will be committed in the light of understanding and will be permanently branded to your soul?”
Sarah hesitated, fearing she was about to agree to something horrible. “I-I do.”
“Do you understand that the soul of a Believer can only be freed from sin through the purity of fire?”
“I do,” she said not much louder than a whisper.
“Do you, Janice, wish to pledge both your life and your death to the Lord through his prophet, Abraham?”
Abraham’s hand had been gently pushing her lower and now she was so close to the water that when she spoke it shook the image that swam on top. She saw her face, though with her dark hair and the shadows she looked more like Sadie than herself, and above her like a monstrous, angry, mythic god was Abraham.
His insanity lit his features and his evil could not be hidden.
“My life. My death. For you,” Sarah said.
He grinned and his mouth and teeth seemed huge, as though he could take her head off with one bite of his giant teeth. She almost screamed at the vision, but then he plunged her into the water and held her beneath its surface until her lungs were about to burst.
Chapter 31
Sadie
The Center for Disease Control Atlanta, Georgia
The top level of the parking garage was an odd scene: next to an ugly, teal Tercel there was a round grill sending up smoke like it was the fourth of July. In front of that, lying on the cool cement, was a man who was so pale and unmoving he could’ve been a cadaver on a morgue slab. The pile of fresh, bloody rags sitting in a heap right beside him didn’t help the image. There was also a soldier whose arms bulged with muscle, a teenage girl with spiked hair and a Goth fetish, a small man wearing a sweater vest over a wet suit and finally a little girl in pink jeans who wouldn’t stop twisting and hopping up and down.
“We can help you,” Sadie said after Grey had quizzed Neil on everything he knew about New Eden. “Come on, Captain, we’ve been there. We know the way, we know the people, we know the layout of the place, or actually Jillybean does, but she’ll tell you, right Jillybean?”
“I have to go to the bathroom,” she said. “Real bad.”
Neil held out his hand for her. “Come on. I gotta go too.”
When they were gone, Sadie laid the back of her hand on Nico’s cheek; it was cool to the touch. She shot Captain Grey a quick look, seeing so many differences between the two soldiers. Nico was a young man, still with blonde fuzz instead of a proper beard. Grey was mature, though not yet grizzled. The muscles of his forearms looked like tree roots and his knuckles had been permanently scarred long ago.
They were both relatively quiet men, though in Nico’s case it was because he wasn’t comfortable speaking English in front of anyone but Sadie. Grey seemed to like silence. He rarely spoke for the sake of speaking and when he walked he made as little noise as forty-five pound Jillybean.
Sadie was irked by the necessity for silence. Life wasn’t lived properly on tip toe. When she felt they had been sitting there quietly long enough she tried again to make her case: “Please? You have orders to investigate New Eden anyway. While you’re inside you might as well see about our friend. We can help. Neil is, uh, versatile and I’m pretty fast, and Jillybean is...”
She paused, unable to describe Jillybean properly without making her sound like a freak. “She’s very smart,” Sadie finally said. “If there’s anyone who can help you get into New Eden it’s her.”
Grey swigged from a water bottle in one long pull. He laughed once and shook his head. “You guys sure do have pluck, and courage and hope, and all that crap, but what you don’t have is any chance at getting into New Eden. If it’s how Neil described it only a professional can get in.”
“Like you?” Sadie asked. “I’m willing to bet a million dollars you could get in and once you’re in you could open one of the silo doors for us.”
He sighed at this. “This sort of job is never like it is in the movies. I know that’s what you’re thinking. Everyone thinks it’s always so easy.”
Sadie gave a half shrug. “Movies are based on something, right?”
“In real life I would need a squad of trained men to back me up, not a trio of misfits. And I would need the right equipment. To start, I’d need real time satellite imagery or a UAV at the very minimum. I would need communication gear, probably C4…”
“What’s C4?” Jillybean asked, suddenly appearing from around the Tercel suddenly.
Sadie jumped. “Dang, where did you come from?”
“The bathroom downstairs.”
“I meant…I guess I meant you were awful quiet,” Sadie said. “You scared the bejesus out of me.”
“Sorry,” Jillybean said. She went to stand directly over Nico’s face and as she looked down at him she went on, “Captain Grey said we were all too loud, so I decided to be quiet instead. What’s C4? And what’s UAV? Ipes says UV stands for ultra-violet. That’s what means a certain kind of light. Purple-ish, I’m guessing.”
Grey blinked at this and questioned, “Purple-ish?”
Jillybean looked up from Nico. “Yes. Violet is sort of a light purple, so I bet ultra-violet is a deeper purple. Like a purple kind of purple. But you know Ipes could’ve been mistaken. Maybe he meant ultra-violent. Violent is what means fighting and such.”
“That’s what I hear,” Grey remarked.
“So, is Ipes right?” Jillybean asked, walking over to where Grey sat with his back to a concrete pillar. They were eye-to eye. “About the UV stuff, I mean?”
Before answering he swigged again from his bottle. “It’s UAV. It stands for unmanned aerial vehicle. You’d call it a little spy plane and C4 is an explosive material.”
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She nodded at this. “And a squad? I know what a squid is, but I never heard of a squad before. Is it like a group of squids? You know, like a goose is to a gaggle like a squid is to a squad?”
Grey blew out, wearied by her constant questions. He even said as much, “You ever stop asking questions?”
“Me? Do you want me to stop asking questions?” Jillybean had retrieved Ipes and the Velveteen Rabbit at some point and now she consulted the zebra. “Ipes say that ignorance is for ignoramuses which I think is sort of like a hippopotamus. Either way they aren’t too smart, and that’s not good. So what’s a squad?”
His wide shoulders slumped. “It’s a group of highly trained individuals, without whom we have no chance at getting into New Eden. This shouldn’t even be your first priority right now. Your friend needs rest and we need to find a secure location.”
“Can we get a location with a pool?” Jillybean made a show of running the back of her hand across her forehead and blowing out loudly. “It’s awful hot around here. Who knew that Georgia could get so hot?”
“Everyone,” Grey growled.
When Neil returned, pink from the heat, he told the group that he knew of a place that would accommodate all of their needs.
Nervous of bounty hunters and bandits, they back-roaded it around the city. Neil and Jillybean traveled in the Tercel, while Grey, Sadie, and the still groggy Nico took the hummer. They drove beyond the suburbs to a home that was not only fortified against the zombies—its windows and doors were boarded over with inch-thick plywood and barred with steel—it also came with a little pond for swimming and fishing.
“Oh, this place!” Jillybean cried upon seeing the rectangle of a house and the pond. She jumped out of the Tercel before the dust had settled and was the first inside and then the first back out again after she had dropped off her I’m a Belieber backpack and kicked off her shoes. In one hand she had a fishing pole and in the other a stale-smelling towel. She didn’t know what to do first.
Grey glanced at the sun. “Fishing is best at dusk. I’d go swimming now. Take care to keep an eye out for stiffs.”
It was a surprise to Sadie that he seemed so utterly casual about the safety of such a tiny person. “That’s it? Keep an eye out for stiffs?” she asked.
“She looks like a good soldier,” Grey said swinging the heavy medbag over one shoulder. “I’m sure she’ll be fine.” For him the discussion was over with. He turned back to the Hummer, and with one arm lifted Nico out and leaned him against the vehicle.
Still pale from his blood loss, Nico swayed in place and attempted a brave smile that was mostly grimace. “I am fine. I am walk, thank you Captain. Thank you for helping. Is very nice.”
“Uh-huh,” Grey replied.
The remains of the afternoon passed quickly for all of them except Sadie. Nico lay on the couch, zonked out from the pain meds the captain had given him. Grey slept as only a soldier could: he dropped his gear, flopped into a recliner and was snoring within thirty seconds. Jillybean spent her time swimming, chasing frogs along the edge of the pond, hunting for salamanders beneath rotting logs, and catching more fish than anyone knew what to do with.
Neil pulled up a folding chair and sat with Ipes and the Velveteen Rabbit in the shade of a cottonwood. Ostensibly, he was guarding her, though in truth he was in more danger than she was. Whenever a zombie ambled by she would retreat to the safety of deep water leaving Neil, who didn’t like to get wet if he could help it, to deal with the beast.
Sadie couldn’t bring herself to leave Nico’s side. She monitored his IV and his pulse. She fretted over the slightest seepage from his wound. She panicked if he breathed nine times a minute instead of ten, and by evening she was the most worn out of the group.
They enjoyed grilled fish for dinner. It was a tasty meal but strange. “That’s Suszal,” Jillybean told Sadie, pointing to her dinner. “She was very pretty before Mister Neil chopped her head off. Mister Neil is going to have Kissy, and Captain Grey, you have Chedrick the Second. That’s what means he was Chedrick’s son. Chedrick was a fish I caught the last time we came here.”
“Uh-huh,” Grey said before forking half of Chedrick the Second into his mouth. He then picked fish bones from his teeth, before finishing off the fish with another gargantuan bite.
Neil, fastidious as always, raised his eyebrows at Grey’s caveman ways. His individual portions were precise, each designed to sit on his fork without the possible drama of falling off. He chewed, swallowed, wiped his lips and asked Jillybean, “What was your fish’s name?”
The seven-year-old knew manners as well. She held up a finger as she finished chewing, turned slightly to produce an unwanted bone from her mouth, stuck it beneath the hidden edge on the near side of her plate and answered simply, “Sixty-eight. She died before I could name her.”
Jillybean looked sad at this and Sadie was on the verge of saying something sympathetic, but Grey was quicker: “You gonna eat the rest of her?”
“We have extra, don’t worry,” Neil said, getting to his feet. “Jilly caught more than enough for everyone to have seconds.” He scurried away to refill the Captain’s plate while Jillybean pulled her plate closer, stuck a guarding arm around it and made an effort to eat more and talk less.
Sadie turned her gaze to the captain. “So? You were going to help us get our friend...my mom out of New Eden.”
“I don’t remember agreeing to that,” Grey said. Sadie could tell he was eyeing Jillybean’s stomach capacity relative to the size of the fish left on her plate. “Besides, you don’t know if she’s there. From what you say she could be anywhere. Even dead.”
“She’s there,” Sadie insisted with more certainty than she felt. Grey said nothing; he only turned his head slightly and spat out a fishbone like he was flicking dirt from the end of his tongue. Sadie made a face at this but forced her lips to smile long enough to say, “This shouldn’t be an issue. Aren’t your orders to check out New Eden?”
Just then, Neil came in with more fish. Though there was enough for everyone to have more, only the captain had seconds. He cut the fish in half but before he could take another heaping bite, Sadie gave him a pointed look.
“My orders don’t include rescues,” he told her with his fork just in front of his lips.
“Did your orders include going after that bounty hunter?”
“I have some flexibility,” he admitted, speaking slowly as though he was worried about trapping himself with his own words. “I’m to find out the exact location of New Eden, discover their numbers and their armaments and if possible their intentions. You’ve already given me most of that.”
They needed his help badly and Sadie felt it slipping away. “So you have flexibility when it comes to doing the right thing? This is the right thing, Captain. Abraham isn’t some gentle priest looking for religious freedom for his peaceful followers. He’s a Jim Jones style kook. He’s thinks the apocalypse was a gift from God for him to reshape the world and repopulate it with his crazy followers.”
“I know all of that already,” Grey said, lowering his fork. “I’d like to help but I don’t see how I can. First, it doesn’t sound like we can even get into New Eden, not without an army, at least. Maybe you don’t realize it but I only have my M4 and a couple of grenades. I’m not packing an arsenal. Which leaves us with one option only: sneaking in. Even if there was a back door, I’d stand out like a sore thumb, and you guys are all on their kill list. We’d be captured before we knew it.”
“Please?” Sadie said, going so far as to clasp her hands in front of her. When he shook his head, her face set into a hard frown. She’d tried cajoling and begging, now she went with anger. “So you won’t help us? You know what? Before the apocalypse I used to have such respect for our soldiers, but now I realize you guys are all a bunch of mother-fuc...”
She stopped in mid-curse and glanced at Jillybean who was taking in the spectacle with her blue eyes flung open to their fullest. They weren’t the
beautiful, soft, denim blue like Sarah’s, nor did they have the sweet, innocent quality of Neil’s baby-blues. Jillybean’s eyes were sharp, icy, and ferociously intelligent. She took in everything, body language, tone, pitch. She certainly knew what Sadie had been about to say and her wisp-thin eyebrow went up as a way of protest.
After that half-second glance, Sadie cut off her hot anger and turned cold. “Cowards, I should say. You’re all a bunch of cowards, or worse.”
Grey spat out another fishbone, this time without turning his head. Neil watched the bone fly and click off his glass. He didn’t say anything. Grey seemed like a volcano, though, thankfully he didn’t explode. He seethed, hissing, “You don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve seen hundreds of soldiers die...literally eaten alive to save, lazy, ungrateful little shits like you. What were you doing during the apocalypse? Were you out there fighting for your family or for your country?”
Sadie, who had been robbing people to survive, couldn’t bring herself to look into Grey’s eyes.
Neil certainly didn’t feel like adding his rather unheroic exploits which had consisted of him cowering inside his own house.
The silence spun out until the captain snorted. “That’s what I thought. These soldiers you call coward fought until there wasn’t a country left to fight for. We fought to save other people’s families while ours were killed. We fought and we fought and most of us died.”
“Sorry, we’ve had some trouble with soldiers,” Neil said.
The excuse sounded lame in Sadie’s ears and she figured the captain would unleash his fury, however his emotions took a u-turn and he only waved his hand as if shooing away a fly. “There are always a few bad apples. Look, Sadie, I never said I wouldn’t help, but we don’t know if your friend is even alive.”
“Eve is,” Neil said.
Grey gave him a tired look. “I’ll do some recon work, ok? Tomorrow, I’ll go at first light. Just know that I can’t promise anything.”
The Apocalyse Outcasts Page 28
